Tag Archives: STEM

HISD’s Washington High School Partners with British School to Build a Mission on Mars

Partnership possible thanks to KBR’s support

Students at HISD’s Booker T. Washington High School are collaborating with students at the Ormiston Victory Academy in Norwich, England to build a mission on Mars, thanks to KBR’s Discover Engineering Committee.

The SAMbassadors program is designed to engage students in science and engineering projects with a global perspective.  The students at both campuses Skype every other week to discuss the logistics of this project and share documents online.  Each school has 25-30 students in the program.

One group of students has been determining environmental conditions on Mars such as wind speed, temperature, atmospheric gases, sunlight and shade, radiation and soil conditions. Another group is designing the living conditions.  Meanwhile, the British students at Victory Academy are creating 3D CAD drawings.

The students from both campuses will Skype immediately following the press conference on Monday, May 20, 2013.

What: SAMbassadors, program to a build mission on Mars

Who:  Aimee Yuan, KBR-DEC chairperson; Patrick Harkin, KBR-DEC outreach chair; Jack Kramer, KBR engineer; Dr. Nghia Le, engineering teacher, Washington High School; LaShonda Bilbo-Ervin, principal, Washington High School; Elizabeth Nolazco, student, Washington High School

When:  Monday, May 20, 2013; Press conference – 9:30 a.m.; Skype interview – 10 a.m.

Where: Washington High School, 119 East 39th Street, Houston, 77018

HISD School Choice Fair Offers Parents Opportunity to Explore Education Options for Students

Representatives from more than 70 HISD schools will be on-site

April 25, 2013 – When it comes to selecting a school, parents and students at the Houston Independent School District have a multitude of options from magnet programs to preschool programs to career and technical education academies and early college high schools.  Houston families will have the opportunity to meet with representatives from more than 70 HISD schools at the upcoming HISD School Choice Fair on Saturday, April 27 from 9 a.m. to noon at the Hattie Mae White Education Support Center (4400 West 18th Street).

“In HISD, we are committed to providing equity in access to quality educational programs for all students,” said Assistant Superintendent of School Choice Dave Wheat.  “We want to help families choose an ideal school for their children based on the students’ interests, talents, and needs.”

The schools at the fair are those that still have space for the upcoming 2013-2014 school year.  The representatives from these schools will be available to answer questions, provide detailed information about their campuses and help parents fill out the application on site.

Information will be provided about HISD’s magnet schools, early colleges, vanguard programs for gifted and talented students, preschool programs, multilingual programs and other specialty programs, including the district’s newest additions to its portfolio, the Baylor College of Medicine Academy at Ryan and The Energy Institute High School.   Parents and students have until May 16 to apply for these two new magnet schools that will feature a highly rigorous curriculum emphasizing science, technology, engineering and mathematics.

For more information about the School Choice Fair, please contact the Office of School Choice at 713-556-6947.

Team HISD Is Hiring Exceptional STEM Teachers

HISD is actively recruiting STEM teachers who are invested in preparing our students to compete in this 21st century economy. By 2018, Texas will have added over 750,000 new jobs in STEM fields. STEM teachers are critical to ensure that Houston’s students are qualified and skilled for these positions. We are currently accepting applications for the 2013-2014 school year. The next application deadline is April 22, 2013.
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Westside HS to Compete in Shell Eco-marathon Americas

A group of Westside HS students work on a piece of their vehicle for the Shell Eco-marathon Challenge

A group of Westside HS students work on a piece of their vehicle for the Shell Eco-marathon Challenge

For students at Westside High School, it’s not slow and steady, but slow and energy-efficient that wins the race. Three Westside Engineering and Geosciences Academy (WEGA) teams will compete in the seventh annual Shell Eco-marathon Americas (SEMA) April 5-7, 2013 in downtown Houston.

The Shell competition recognizes students who design the highest miles-per-gallon performing vehicles. Student teams from around the world were tasked with designing, building, and testing ultra energy-efficient vehicles. The goals for the 2013 competition: surpass last year’s record of 2,188 MPG (awarded to a team from Indiana) and to take home the coveted win for “Best Electric Car”.
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Rice Empower Helping More Minority Students Envision Careers in STEM Fields

Students conduct experiments at the Rice STEM Expo. (Photo courtesy of Rice University)

About 150 students from four HISD campuses, including North Houston Early College, Sharpstown, and Wheatley high schools, got a glimpse into both college life and the careers that may await them after completing it when they took part in Rice University’s Empower STEM Expo earlier this month.

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HISD Seeking Grant for 8 New STEM Magnet Schools

The HISD Board of Education voted Thursday to move forward with a plan to compete for $12 million in federal grant funding to open eight new magnet schools emphasizing science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) instruction.

The measure passed with a 7-1 vote with Board President Anna Eastman opposed.

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New HISD Magnet Schools Proposal to be Considered

School board to weigh applying for $12 million grant to open eight magnets focused on science, technology, engineering and math

The HISD Board of Education is set to decide this week whether to compete for $12 million in federal funding to open eight new magnet schools emphasizing science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) instruction.

All eight new STEM magnets would be whole-school programs, meaning every student in those schools would benefit from an instructional approach that emphasizes a rich STEM curriculum. Current magnet programs at existing schools included in the grant proposal have struggled to draw students and would be replaced with the STEM magnet.  The Board of Education is scheduled to vote Thursday on whether to authorize the grant application. The meeting begins at 5 p.m. on Feb. 14, 2013 in the board auditorium of the Hattie Mae White Educational Support Center (4400 West 18th Street).

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Attucks Middle School Wins T-STEM Designation

Teachers and students at HISD’s Attucks Middle School will soon be reaping the benefit of a new STEM-based partnership, thanks to the campus’ newly acquired status as a Texas Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (T-STEM) Academy.

The school was designated a T-STEM Academy for the 2012–2013 school year by the Texas Education Agency, which means educators there can now access professional development opportunities, receive technical assistance, and network with other STEM academies to share best practices.

The school has already forged such a partnership with nearby Jones High School, which became a magnet school for STEM studies in the 2011–2012 school year (see related story here). Called the Jones-Attucks Collaborative (JAC-STEM), this arrangement will enable teachers and leaders from Jones to work directly with their peers at Attucks.

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HISD Students Make History on the Space X Dragon

The Space X Dragon which is now headed to rendezvous with the International Space Station is carrying two experiments made by four Houston Independent School District students as well as two student-designed mission patches.  The Dragon launched Tuesday morning at 2:44 a.m. CST from Cape Canaveral, FL.

The National Center for Earth and Space Science (NCESSE) and NanoRacks, LLC, have developed the Student Spaceflight Experiments Program (SSEP), aimed at helping today’s students become the scientists and engineers of tomorrow.  The program gives the students the opportunity to be involved in a national space project with a focus on STEM education via the Nano-Racks payload.

Johnston Middle and Parker Elementary were two of the schools selected from 12 communities in the United States.   Hundreds of students in grades 5- 8 were given the opportunity to design and submit experiments to be performed in microgravity aboard the space station.  From 267 formal experiment proposals received, two were chosen to go to space.

Emily Soice from Johnston Middle School and Michael Prince, Maxx Denning and Aaron Stuart from Parker Elementary school had the winning proposals.  Both schools also held an art contest for the mission patch design. Fifth grade Parker Elementary student Christian Astorga and eighth grade Johnston Middle School student Sebastian Beil designed the winning mission patches.

The students conferred with STEM experts from Rice University, the National Space Biomedical Research Institute (NSBRI), NASA, Pfizer, Texas A and M University, the University of Houston, Baylor College of Medicine, and Texas Southern University.    The students also had the opportunity to visit research facilities to prepare for their experiments for flight. 

The Student Space Flight Experiments Program (http://ssep.ncesse.org) is undertaken by the National Center for Earth and Space Science Education (NCESSE; http://ncesse.org) in partnership with Nanoracks, LLC and is enabled through NanoRacks working in partnership with NASA under a Space Act Agreement as part of the utilization of the International Space Station as a National Laboratory.  

During the Dragon’s 21-day mission it will dock with the space station where it will deliver about a half ton of supplies along with cargo from NanoRacks containing 15 student-designed SSEP experiments from around the United States.  Dragon will be the first privately-owned spaceship to dock at the space station.